Black and white picture of the Van Nelle Fabriek in Rotterdam
Black and white picture of the Van Nelle Fabriek in Rotterdam
Van Nelle Fabriek — home of RockBoost

Five takeaways from my first month as a Junior Growth Hacker @ RockBoost

Jade Heuillard
Nov 1 · 3 min read

To celebrate my first month — or technically more like five weeks, I decided to reflect on what I learned, what I experienced, and what I take away from this new experience.

1. The French definition of a growth hacker is “a marketing ninja”.

Isn’t it cool? I’m considering adding it to my Instagram bio, maybe LinkedIn too.

2. The difference between a digital marketer and a growth hacker is even more significant than I first thought.

After holding the role of digital marketer for over a year and a half, I’ve built my own experience and set of skills. Jumping into this new challenge was a big realisation for me; digital marketers and growth hackers are different. They think differently, they work differently, and even more important, they simply have different skills. Digital marketing pretty much is a specialisation while growth hacking is a way of thinking combined with a wider set of skills.

I ended up joining a team full of experienced growth hackers, which made me grasp and admire even more what they are capable of. A little bird told me: “So you’re gonna become the Swiss knife of marketing, right?”, from what I saw, I guess it’s pretty accurate.

3. An onboarding process can make or break your integration into a company.

I can’t tell that I have tons of experiences with integrating companies — even though I’ve had my fair share. Still, you notice the difference when we throw you into a pool with floaters and without! It’s incredible how a well-rounded onboarding process can help you go home with a lesser headache than your regular first days’ headaches and tiredness.

4. Give your employees the key to grow personally and professionally, and you’ll have happy workers.

As an eager learner, I couldn’t be happier to find out that RockBoost allocates learning time and personalised plans to all its employees. It’s not only about learning the skills needed to help a client, but it’s also about finding your specialisation and creating your own path. At the moment, I’m still battling my urge to learn everything I stumble upon — which is not the most efficient thing to do. So now will be about focusing on getting the fundamentals right and becoming this Swiss knife I mentioned earlier.

5. Growth hackers have serious addictions… to Chrome extensions. Once you start, you never go back.

I’m not gonna lie, I already had my child-like addiction to some of the Chrome extensions — maybe 7 or 8 maximum. But since I step a foot at RockBoost, my toolbar went from 8 regulars to 15 veeeery fast. The smaller your URL bar, the most satisfying it becomes. I cannot explain this syndrome, but I promise it is real!

That’s all folks!

If you’ve reached the end, then congrats! What was your biggest learning when starting a new job?

Also… If you have any favorite Chrome extension, don’t hesitate to share your treasure in the comments ;).

Merci et Au revoir!

Jade Heuillard
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